Leeds Bradford Airport chaos: Video shows travellers queuing for two hours to board plane

The video shows passengers queuing for more than two hours to board their planes this morning (May 31).

Orinder Chohan took the footage as he queued for more than two hours to get through security before flying to Palma with his wife.

He said of his 'horrendous' experience: "There's queues all over the place as you walk in. Nothing signed to let you know which queue is for what. It's easy to join the security queue thinking it’s baggage drop off."

Orinder said there were no Ryanair staff on duty to check bags in and passengers had to use self-service machines - of which only two out of 10 were working.

He added: "You have to label your own bags, put them on the belt and press green button to send ourselves. Then were joined the security queue and the fast track moves slower than the normal one."

It comes as Britain's travel hubs face staff shortages and huge surge in demand for post-pandemic breaks.

Orinder said he arrived at 6.45am for a 9.35am flight, while other passengers reported long queues as early as 4am.

One passenger, who arrived at 4.15am for a 7am flight, posted a picture on social media showing snaked queues outside the terminal entrance.

They later tweeted: "We have survived Leeds Airport security! Two hours and five mins in total. Obviously a totally rubbish experience, but have to say that the staff that were present were all very good."

Leeds Bradford Airport blamed queues on delays in Home Office approval for new recruits.

A spokesman said: "Unfortunately, these current challenges are an industry wide problem, caused by the speed of withdrawal of travel restrictions and testing which has led to the rapid recovery of international travel.

"Airports across the country are being impacted by lead times to recruit and train additional staff. More staff are being released into operation from training each week. LBA is confident that with additional staff being recruited the situation will return to normal."